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SW Iowa | I farm around 650A... had been running 60' Hardi 575 Navigator behind a 5230 Maxxum and three years ago went to a ~3000 hr Hagie 284xp with 80' booms that I extended to 90'. Self propelled is nicer to run, but not sure I gained enough that it would be a no brainer to do it again. I kept the pull type around for backup just because it isn't worth much. Used pull type sprayers seem like a big time buyers market if you can make one work for you.
Pull type was much lower maintenance, slower in field, 3 sets of tires at 60" spacing meant anything you ran over post wasn't coming back, smaller batches but having inductor on the sprayer was sorta handier in some ways. Sprayer used PTO pump with Hardimatic control or whatever they call it that you set speed/pressure and then could throttle up/down and rate stayed correct as long as you were in the same gear. Dead simple and very accurate, but also has its limitations (basically needed to choose gear to be able to traverse the worst spot without breaking anything, which limited speed in smooth areas). 3 boom sections pretty easy to run manually if you use a foam marker on headland pass(es) or use a display with mapping.
Hagie is faster in the field and wider boom means fewer tracks, rate controller is more convenient. Significantly better visibility (partly due to front booms) and having the ground clearance to drive straight over top of intakes can make a big difference in our broad base terraces. 120" tracks mean there's more crop in between to compensate for stuff you run over. Booms are much less robust than Hardi, and wider boom with different range of motion can be harder to keep boom as close to the ground/crop. Have to run chem through inductor during fill or dump in the top; 2 tanks with mechanical agitation have pros and cons. Pretty sure hydrostat drive uses more fuel than the tractor did. Ground clearance / wider boom make it more practical to ground rig fungicide, though I haven't been brave enough to try to drive through VT corn yet. There's more maintenance to deal with even if nothing breaks (greasing 12 zerks on legs daily, extra engine/drive system with all the associated fluids/filters, additional AC system to maintain, etc.). 5 sections is harder to run well manually, but isn't impossible.
If you have mainly square or wide open fields IMO a pull type is a no brainer. If you have time that the speed of a pull type isn't a big problem, it's probably cheaper to run even if you have cut up fields/waterways etc. Limited time and cut up fields - self propelled probably has some advantages, just make sure you do offseason maintenance and know what you've got to minimize surprise downtime.
Part of why I ended up extending 80' Hagie out to 90' was to be able to do 60'--but you have to manually fold the tips in... I found almost all of mine I could get things sprayed without folding but there are some spots that folding/unfolding would be handier if I didn't have to get out of the cab to pin boom(s) in and then again to unpin. I think 60/90 is more common in other brands but it's something to pay attention to when shopping.
You didn't mention planter width, but whatever you get I would definitely try to buy a sprayer that is an odd multiple of your planter width--so you're aligned with planter passes and can follow planter tracks / marker trench. If you plant 12x30 buy 90', 8x30 100', etc.
Edited by Lone Cedar 10/28/2024 13:12
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Decision on buying a sprayer
